Abstract
In effect since April 2001, Japan's law for recycling specified kinds of home electrical appliances has made the recycling of plastics recovered from waste home electric appliances such as television sets, refrigerators, air-conditioners, and washing-machines an important problem. This paper focuses on pellets recycled from polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), two plastic resins sorted during recovery processes from waste home electric appliances, and investigates the mechanical properties of each. The results of feasibility studies show that while PP has a good potential for recycling with high strength and flexural modulus, and a good degree of IZOD impact strength, PS does not, making the latter a poor candidate for material recycling. Based on these results, tests were performed on mixed recycling pellets made from differing ratios of virgin-PP blended with recycled-PP. Evaluation and SEM observation of the mechanical properties and microstructure respectively of these mixed plastics suggested PP's relative applicability for material recycling in terms of its recycling capabilities.
